Like holy water on Linda Blair

Craig R. Smith is an author, commentator and popular media guest because he instantly engages audiences with his common-sense analyses of local, national and global trends. Serving as CEO of Swiss America for over 25 years, Craig understands that Americans want solid answers to the tough questions and that real leadership begins with servanthood. Craig's most recent book is "Crashing the Dollar: How to Survive a Global Currency Collapse," which he co-authored with Lowell Ponte. For media interviews please call Bronwin Barilla at 800-950-2428.

President Obama made his request clear. He wanted delivered to his desk a bipartisan bill that would cut government spending and allow Congress to raise the debt ceiling, putting America on a path to fiscal sanity.

The president, mind you, did not want to stop spending money or cut government.

The nation, however, made it clear in 2010 what they wanted. They demanded their government cut spending and halt the exploding national debt Mr. Obama increased by $4 trillion dollars in just two years.

Speaker of the House John Boehner had his marching orders, and march he did. After a week of negotiations with the White House, he drafted, debated and passed the “Cut, Cap and Balance” bill on a bipartisan basis, 234 to 190. The bill also called for an increase of the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion, thus avoiding any further chaos or bickering. He then sent the bill to the Senate.

Before the bill even arrived to the Senate doorway, Harry Reid promised to kill it. And on the off chance the bill made it to the floor and it did pass the Senate, Mr. Obama assured a veto. The Democrats, on a 51-46 party-line basis, “tabled” the bill, which essentially killed it. No vote up or down thus denying the people a say.

Why?

The House provided exactly what the president and Democrats asked for. If this legislation wasn’t what they wanted, what did they offer in return?

Nothing. And that is the problem.

The Democrats, lead by a president who has voted “present” most of his legislative life, are not willing to take responsibility for any difficult decision because political power is far more important than the future of the nation. They can’t allow anything to disrupt the status quo. Business as usual. Tax, spend and vilify the rich and big business.

If the delusions of Nancy Pelosi are to be believed, she truly thinks being belligerent toward the bill is akin to preserving “life as we know it” on planet Earth. This woman cannot be taken seriously any longer. Her comments have traveled beyond bizarre. She is becoming the California version of Cynthia McKinney.

Mr. Boehner did his job. He should now simply say to the other side, “We have done our job. You stopped it in the Senate, and now it is up to you to come up with a better solution that meets the president’s requirements of a bipartisan bill.” Good luck with “the war is lost” partisan hack Harry Reid leading the effort.

Mr. Obama should demand an up or down vote on a bill that would cut spending, cap future spending and institute a constitutional amendment to balance the budget while lifting the debt ceiling. If he truly wants fiscal responsibility for future generations, wouldn’t that be the right move?

We all know what Obama and the Democrats want. They want more spending, more power and more entitlements to assure more dependency on government and thus more Democratic voters in 2012.

You know why I know Cut, Cap and Balance is the right approach? Juan McCain, the senator from my home state, took to the floor and referred to hard-working, law-abiding, taxpaying, decent people of the tea party in the most despicable terms, such as “hobbits.” At that very moment I knew the bill was best for America. A “nay” vote from Juan is a guarantee of soundness.

I remembered back to the 2010 election when the open borders/amnesty McCain became “build the damn fence” McCain. I watched him put on his counterfeit conservative hat to cover his true liberal thinking. There is nothing conservative about McCain other than his receding hairline.

The president is sitting on a far worse economy than he inherited. And it is a direct result of his ideology and policies, which refuse to embrace the free-market, small-government principles that create jobs and growth. He understands full well how he and Harry have failed the American people. He just wants to find a way to blame it on the Republicans and the tea party. And if John Boehner is not careful, he will give Mr. Obama the ability to do just that.

The Democrats are now showing like a cheap suit. Think back a couple months ago when a secretly taped conversation between Chuck Schumer and the Democrats surfaced revealing Schumer coaching other on how to use the words, “extreme” and “extremists” when describing the Republicans. It was all over the news, and for a week and we never heard a Democrat even whisper the words. They had been busted.

How quickly most forgot. I didn’t. It’s the same today.

Every other word out of Reid, Schumer, Pelosi and Obama is just that. They talk about how the extremists in the tea party have taken over the Republican Party, how the positions of Boehner are “in the extreme” – the exact coaching they received from Schumer with his focus group-tested terms.

Extremists haven’t taken over. Sound thinking, has and the Dems can’t handle it. It is like watching holy water being sprinkled on Linda Blair in “The Exorcist.” They can’t stand common sense.

America spoke in 2010, sending 80-plus new House members and several new senators to Washington with a clear mandate: Stop spending money and balance the budget. Voters watched in horror as Pelosi and Obama jammed a health-care bill down our throats on a completely partisan basis. They watched the Obama gang explode our national debt. Then they said enough, went to the ballot box and gave the house back to the right with a mandate to stop spending.

The time for bipartisanship is over. It is time for making the tough decisions. Mr. Boehner did his job and should be applauded. He fought the demagoguery of the White House scaring seniors by saying Social Security checks might not go out, knowing full well they would. Boehner watched the moveon.org commercials showing grandma and the nation being pushed off the cliff. He also heard the cries from Reid of a financial apocalypse and catastrophe. All things that would lie ahead if the Republicans don’t do what they are told.

He fought through lie after lie and distortions that would make Bernie Madoff blush. He stood his ground and told the president and the Democrats, on behalf of the American people, the spending will stop and the government will start to scale down into something that more resembles a constitutional government, not the monster it has become.

The president in his last two prompter-read speeches implored the American people to call their elected officials, and they did, flooding the switchboards. What the president didn’t tell you was most of the calls supported Cut, Cap and Balance. He made it sound on Friday as if it were just the opposite.

People want Washington stopped.

Ultimately this crisis, which to Obama is a terrible thing to waste, will be resolved and life will go on. Will we be better off or worse is the question. Will we cut spending and force our leaders to balance the budgets or allow continued out-of-control spending, resulting in larger deficits and a higher national debt? Keep in mind Reid and Obama have never proposed a budget. The one Mr. Obama proposed (if we can call it that) was voted down in the Senate 97-0. It called for an additional $10 trillion-plus in debt.

Whatever the outcome, I just hope the American people remember 51 Democratic senators voted to table Cut, Cap and Balance because it required a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. The lame excuses for voting against it were laughable. They simply want no restraints on their ability to spend your money.

Keep in mind just 16 years ago a balanced budget amendment failed to pass by one vote. If it had, we would not be where we are today.

The positions have never been clearer. Stop spending or continue to spend. We know beyond a shadow of doubt which party is on which side. Even when the president is given exactly what he asks for he turns it down. Why? It was a Republican who came up with the solution. And of course that wouldn’t play to well in the 2012 elections, now would it? And then he could no longer spend your money.

Aug. 2 will come and go, and the nation will see they have been lied to. I only hope they remember in 2012 from whom those lies originated.